Garage/Shop Expansion- Need Engineer/Architect in CA!

Sorry about the stupid pictures above......drafted this all, hit enter and got the spinning wheel of dots (bottom pic!) which never went away, thankfully was able to copy and paste screen shots into Word doc and back out again.......

My last couple of paragraphs went to the effect.....

So, that's where I sit at the moment. I STILL cant find anyone to erect the building or pour the concrete that isn't stratospherically priced. Again, your project is too small, but just in case you're foolish enough to pay, we'll take it!

I DID plead my case on the existing building to the county guy and he finally admitted that he had the power to come out and check the building out, as I had done some minor destructive work to determine footing and pad depths....  We'll see what happens when the time comes!!!

Cheers!!!
Steve

I recently got quotes on a 60x40 shop steel building, steel prices have quadrupled since mid last year, I may just wait. But when I do I expect to do most of the building erection myself. If it wasn't such a large area I'd do the concrete as well. Draw on friends and family (Pantera people are a great bunch!) to come help out with free beer & pizza!

Everything is up. Pine has doubled. We just got a spike in food prices. The news is reporting manufacturers are saying it's because of the Suez Canal problem last week.

Personally I think there's just a lot of price gouging going on.

It's not the prices of the materials, it's finding someone to do the labor without exceeding the price of hiring a PHD to do the job..........  I don't have any neighbors/friends/family able to assist/do such construction work, so doing it myself isn't an option that I want to consider.  No capable extra hands!!! 

The issue here, is not the putting the stuff together, it's getting the darned permit to be able to do it!  No one wants ANY CHANCE of liability......for what exactly in this case, I do not know.

I long for the days when I can walk my paperwork in, look at someone in the eyeballs and plead my case.......not sit here at my computer and get asked to design a new nuclear propulsion system for my outhouse......!!!

Cheers!

Steve, if permitting is your current problem.  I suggest going to either your county supervisor if you live in the unincorporated county area or your city council member if you live in the city.  Explain to them that the request from the building department is unreasonable and much more involved than should be required for a simple storage barn.  Ask for help, that is your main approach.

Oh and a contribution to their political campaign doesn't hurt either

HAH!!! Another comedian!!!      I have been doing exactly that.....but "with the new requirements blah blah blah" it's turned into quite the catch 22.

Gone are the days of "simply" getting a permit (at least here in Kali.....) and then you figure out what you're going to build...sort of.....

In my case, I know basically what I want, but I'm stuck in this "need a permit to get quotes, and need to purchase a building before you can get a permit" loop.

NOW, IF I were to go out and get professionally drawn up plans for my glorified Kleenix box of a building, I'd be fine, but when the costs for plans and a concrete drawing exceed 25% of the steel costs.....SOMETHING is wrong here.......

When I pulled my county file on my property (DID NOT DO THIS when I bought the place....SHOULD HAVE!) I laughed when I saw the house permit apps..........rectangle on a piece of paper, a simple line for the road out front......no plans,  This was the early 80's.  I guess that was progress from the mid to late 60's when prior to that permits were not required......now you need an engineering degree......

I guess there's always the build it and they will come around plan...... but you hear about the counties getting all PO'd and requiring that buildings be torn down and the concrete being removed, although in my case.....I had tried....and basically been obstructed from doing it legally, even though everything is above board in terms of meeting construction requirements.     Not like I'm building a stick building and patching it together with scrap pallets.......

I'll get thru.....just a matter of keeping my head up and digging.

I should have gone into civil engineering.....then I could draw up my own plans.....!  Hmmm, maybe there's a new career path in there somewhere.....buy some software......and MOOCH off of the steel companies that don't seem to want to provide a service to customers any longer........

Ciao!

Steve

Steve, I wasn't trying to be funny.  Here are my thoughts.

If you really have to have a prefab steel building:

1. Pay the company that you want to buy your building from, buy the engineering plans and calcs.  Ask if they can include the foundation design too.  If not, then hire an architect or civil engineer or structural engineer to design the foundation system.  This is what you need to submit for permit along with a site plan etc.

If you can live with a wood framed building:

2. Seek out a local drafting service to draw plans for you.  In California, one does not need to be an architect or and engineer to design and build a wood framed residential structure. See the link  California Residential Code 2019 based on the International Residential Code 2018 (IRC 2018) (up.codes)   Ok, I'm sure the California Residential Code 2019 is probably above your head but a good drafting service knows how to do this and they usually specialize in small projects.  Another up side to wood framing is you can most likely find more workers that know how to do this than steel.

Just my 2-cents